Today’s update discusses:

• possible move to Phase 3 of Governor’s five-phase plan
• new website to help unemployed residents
• legislator’s amended lawsuit against Governor Pritzker

HEALTH

• Before moving to Phase 3 of Governor Pritzker’s five-phase reopening plan, a region must meet certain milestones, including to have “[a]t or under a 20 percent positivity rate and increasing no more than 10 percentage points over a 14-day period.” While the climbing number of cases in the state made achieving this goal seem unlikely anytime soon, the Illinois Department of Public Health announced this week that all four regions of the state have officially fallen below the 20 percent mark. If the regions continue to report results that either remain steady or decline, many regions and possibly the entire state could move to Phase 3 as early as May 30th.

ECONOMY

• Over one million Illinois residents are unemployed, so the state has created a site meant to connect those looking for a job with employers seeking employees. The site allows employers to post job openings and allows those looking for a job to search for an opening to pursue. Governor Pritzker made clear that “the financial stability and success of [Illinois] residents is key to getting Illinois’ economy back on its feet [and] Illinois won’t be restored until our workers and families have the opportunities and resources they need to build and fill their lives.”

EMERGENCY POWERS

• Darren Bailey is the Southern Illinois lawmaker who successfully obtained a temporary restraining order against applying the statewide stay-at-home order to himself. Bailey has amended the complaint so that the outcome of his case will have broader application than to him alone. The amended complaint alleges that the Governor lacked the authority to extend the stay-at-home order as to any Illinois residents beyond the initial 30-day order.  In support of his allegations, Bailey points to an opinion written by Michael J. Luke, a prior attorney general, who stated, “the Governor would be required to seek legislative approval for the exercise of extraordinary measures extending beyond 30 days.”